3 recruitment trends you’ll want to know about this year

The workplace is changing, and so is how we find the best candidates for it.

At HR GO, we see these as exciting times for recruitment as well as the businesses we help. Here are our predictions for the three top trends to watch for in 2018.

1 Flexible and remote working

No doubt flexible and remote working have been on your radar for a while. By law, all employees are entitled to request flexible working if they’ve been in their job for 26 weeks or more. But flexible work arrangements have shot up the list of attractive workplace benefits in the last 12 months.

At HR GO, we’ve noticed candidates demanding more flexibility before they even accept a job offer. It’s become usual to ask to work remotely from home one day a week, or put in longer hours from Monday to Thursday then have Friday off.

Not all companies can be remote-work-friendly. But if yours can, it can pay dividends. It won’t just make you more attractive to job hunters, but it’s also likely to boost staff commitment and ultimately enable you to retain your most valued talent. Your turnover may thank you for it.

2 Diversity

Encouraging greater diversity in the workplace might have sometimes been considered a tick box exercise in the past, but smart businesses now rightly view it as key for business success.

Industry as a whole is waking up to the fact that a more diverse and inclusive workforce, with a focus on bringing people from different backgrounds and experiences into the business no matter their race, gender, sexuality, age or disability for example, is a true positive.

As part of LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends 2018 survey, 78% of companies polled said they prioritise diversity to improve culture.

Diverse teams are starting to perform better in terms of productivity, innovation and engagement and crucially bottom line, with a recent study showing that companies who are the least diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity are almost a third less likely to be profitable.

3 Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has shaken off its science fiction tag. From predictive texting and voice assistants on smartphones, to spam filters in email, it’s creeping into everyday life more and more. The right AI software programmes are also set to make recruitment agencies more efficient than ever. Which is good news not just for us at HR GO, but also the businesses we work with every day.

AI can help recruiters screen candidates who apply for low-level jobs, filtering large volumes of CVs to discard those who don’t fit the basic criteria. Based on the type of candidates businesses have hired in the past, it can also learn to look out for suitable matches in the future. It may even help companies decide when they need staff in the first place.

This will help speed up the recruitment process, as well as allow recruiters to spend more time on the things that AI can’t help with (yet!), like interviewing candidates and nurturing relationships.

Why embrace change?

From giving employees’ work-life balance proper consideration, and waking up to diversity as a positive force for business, to embracing AI’s many possibilities, why is it worth knowing about these trends in recruitment?

Well, the UK’s still suffering from a skills shortage so the businesses who have a clear grasp on what’s most important to candidates now, and how technology can help, are most likely to secure the best talent. In today’s tough market, that could make all the difference between success and failure.